Turnout low in Egypt's parliamentary election
Date
10/19/2015 2:52:30 AM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula)Men cast their votes at a school used as voting centre in Alexandria Egypt.
By Ahmed Aboulenein and Eric Knecht
CAIRO: Egyptians turned out in low numbers on Sunday to vote in the first phase of an election hailed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as a milestone on the road to democracy but shunned by critics who say the new chamber will rubber stamp his decisions.
Many voters were elderly supporters of Sisi who as army chief toppled Egypt's first freely-elected president in 2013 then launched a fierce crackdown on dissent.
Egypt has had no parliament since June 2012 when a court dissolved the democratically-elected main chamber then dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood reversing a key accomplishment of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Sisi the latest man from the military to rule Egypt ousted elected president Mohamed Mursi of the Brotherhood after mass protests against him.
Many of the young secular activists at the forefront of the 2011 uprising that deposed Mubarak have also found themselves on the wrong side of the law.
Visits by Reuters correspondents to polling stations showed light turnout in contrast to the long lines that formed at the last election in 2012.
Young Egyptians boycotting the polls were cynical. "It's not going to matter. It's just for show to show that we are a democracy and we have elections and blah blah blah any nonsense" said Ahmed Mostafa 25 who works in a lab.
"Most people in our generation feel the same way: that all of this is a show."
Ahmed Ibrahim a 34-year-old accountant had a similar view.
"The youth in Egypt our ambition in 2011 we were going to build the country - but then suddenly it was stolen from us" he
said.
"Ninety-nine percent of my friends are not going to vote." In the working-class Cairo neighbourhood of Gezirat al-Dahab a judge at a polling station said only about 10 percent of registered voters had taken part.
Security was tight in a country facing a militant insurgency.
On paper the new parliament will have wide ranging powers. It can reject the president's choice for prime minister or even
impeach the president. But with Muslim Brotherhood leaders and youth activists behind bars critics doubt it can provide checks and balances.
"The election is a farce. I don't think anyone in Egypt is taking it seriously" Muslim Brotherhood official Wafaa Hefny
told Reuters.
Soldiers and policemen stood guard outside a polling station in a school in October 6 City on the outskirts of Cairo where there were only about 30 people casting ballots.
"These elections will result in illegitimate institutions and we will never participate in such elections" said seniorBrotherhood member Mohamed Soudan.
Reuters